The Canal Village is made up of buildings constructed during the canal era, and the water nearby is the only remaining accessible and recreational watered segment of the Wabash & Erie Canal in Indiana. The ingenuity, skill, and dogged determination of the first European settlers in this region made possible the solid cabins and structures that housed their families and possessions. Buildings from the 1830s and 1840s were typical of those that formed villages and towns along the entire 468 mile length of the Wabash & Erie Canal between Toledo, Ohio, and Evansville, Indiana. The first settlers used indigenous materials such as local timber, field stones, mud, clay, plant fibers, and animal skins to build their cabins, out-buildings, and fences. The Bowen Log House, Kuns Family Log Cabin, and the One Room Log School House were built of logs cut locally and hand hewn with broad axe and adz tools. After the logs were interlocked to form cabin walls, they were chinked with mud or clay to form an air tight bond against the winter winds. The cabins were heated with fireplaces made of field stone held together with locally produced lime, and these fireplaces were also used for cooking, drying clothes, and curing wood for tools. Many early log cabins had dirt floors and tables made from split logs with saplings for legs. By the 1840s, saw mills on local streams provided power for milling lumber and processing grains for flour, and finished boards for floors, shelves, furniture, and interior trim became available. Excess water from the canal also powered mills. Later, almost all new homes, as well as some barns, were built using milled lumber, and the 1844 Reed Case House is a fine example of a Federal Style house using milled lumber throughout the interior.